"What Rights to Land Have the Alaska Natives?:
The Primary Question" - May, 1966
by William L. Hensley with May 2001 Introduction

I wrote the paper "What Rights to Land Have the Alaska Native:
the Primary Issue" for a class in Constitutional Law that
was taught by Judge Jay Rabinowitz at the University of Alaska. This
was a graduate level course that just happened to be taught the spring
semester in 1966. I had just graduated from George Washington
University (GWU) and had no idea what to do with my life. I had
started college in Fairbanks after high school, moved on to GWU, got
a B.A. in Political Science and had no clear idea what career would
be appropriate.

Growing up in Kotzebue, like many Inupiat children, I had been taught
nothing about our history, language or culture through grade school
and certainly nothing in the boarding school I attended in Tennessee.
The system conspired to make sure we didn't retain anything from our
heritage and pushed the reading, writing and history of the dominant
culture.

It was this short paper that helped me to understand, that by 1966,
the Alaska Native people were in grave danger of losing all of their
traditional lands. The little research that I did, with the assistance
and encouragement from Judge Rabinowitz, provided me the insight I needed
to take action to save what we could. It was as if scales were
lifted from my eyes at the conclusion of that spring semester. If
the state land selections continued, it was clear that the hope of retrieving
Native land, or getting compensation, would perhaps never come. I
knew we had to act and to act quickly.

This paper helped me to speak to others and to make a visit to Kotzebue
to begin the land claim in what is now the NANA region. It also
propelled me to join others in the formation of what became the Alaska
Federation of Natives, in October of 1966.
If I'm not mistaken, I believe Charlie Edwardsen made copies of
my paper to distribute to the first convention of AFN. In spite
of it being a short paper, it outlined a small bit of American Indian
history and their treatment by the United States; some of the resulting
laws based on the treaties; some of the key points in Alaska Native
history such as the Treaty of Cession, the Organic Act of 1884, the
Indian Citizenship Act, the Indian Reorganization Act, the Indian Claims
Commission Act and the Statehood Act. These were virtually unkown
by Alaska Natives in 1966 except for the Tlingits who had been in court
since the 1930's seeking compensation for the Tongass National Forest.

I strongly urge Alaskans to require the teaching of Alaska history in
our public schools. This will help us to understand the nature
of the issues that we face today and in the future.